┏━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━┑
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄.
[0𝟓]. 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐄.
【 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 】
━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━
❛ 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘉𝘌 𝘐 𝘋𝘐𝘋 𝘛𝘌𝘓𝘓
𝘑𝘌𝘋 𝘛𝘖 𝘒𝘐𝘓𝘓 𝘓𝘈𝘕𝘋𝘖𝘕 ❜
┗━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━┛

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐉𝐄𝐃 had attacked Landon Kirby, his first instinct was to make a run for the human's room to see what kind of damage Jed had done. The moment Nathaniel entered the room- more like, barged in- the nephilim came to see Hope as she bandaged Landon up and to her left, a standing Rafael as he scowled furiously at what Nathaniel's friend had done.

"I'm gonna tear Jed apart," Rafael spat.

Nathaniel's eyebrows furrowed. "Like hell you are."

With that, Nathaniel's presence was known to the group as eyes landed on him. Rafael instantly puffed-out his chest as his jaw clenched, and Nathaniel simply shook his head as a humorless laugh left him. It's like both Landon and Rafael didn't understand the magnitude of Nathaniel's power. Which is why they liked challenging the nephilim like they did. Nathaniel was getting tired of doing nothing, the nephilim was close to exploring and showing them what kind of damage he could do.

"He hurt Landon," Rafael said between gritted teeth.

Nathaniel scrunched up his nose. "He's my friend."

"Rafael isn't going to touch Jed," Hope stated seriously.

Rafael huffed in Hope's direction. "Oh, I am. He's gonna pay for what he did. He could've killed him."

"Jed's not stupid, if he wanted Landon dead, the kid would be dead," Nathaniel hissed, motioning aggressively towards Landon whilst he laid on the bed.

"And that makes it better?" Rafael asked incredulously.

Hope gritted her teeth, over their macho-man showdown as she turned to Rafael. "You wanna do something to help him? Take a walk to the herb garden and get me some Hazelwood root."

Still furious, Rafael left without another word and Landon's eyebrows furrowed curiously. "What does Hazelwood root do?"

Nathaniel crossed his arms over his chest before looking between Landon and Hope. "It doesn't exist, she just wanted him out of the room to cool off."

Hope confirmed Nathaniel's words with a nod, but the tribrid didn't turn to look at the nephilim which in return, made Nathaniel anxious. Hope was holding Landon's hand and looking at him in a way it didn't sit well with Nathaniel. Something was completely off. Hope knew something Nathaniel didn't and she was upset about it.

"Hope?" Nathaniel asked quietly.

Hope still didn't turn to Nathaniel, instead the tribrid just hummed her response. Hope was angry with him. That was her giveaway whenever she got mad at something Nathaniel did. It had never bothered the nephilim before, because he had always intentionally made her upset, but now Nathaniel didn't know what he had done. And if it wasn't bad already, Hope was brushing him off for Landon.

And that stung.

Nathaniel cleared his throat. "Can we talk outside?"

There was an awkward moment as Hope didn't respond or move to walk outside with Nathaniel. Landon dozily looked between the two but didn't utter a single word. And as Nathaniel was readying himself to just walk out of the room, Hope sighed, saying a small goodbye to Landon before she stood and brushed passed Nathaniel without giving him so much as a glance.

Nathaniel bit his tongue to not comment on it as he made his way into the hallway to stand in front of Hope. The tribrid's stance was rigid and her body was slightly turned away from Nathaniel. And that said a lot to the nephilim. Nathaniel had to have screwed up big if she couldn't even spare him the smallest of looks.

"Are you mad at me?" Nathaniel finally asked after a long moment of awkward silence.

Hope scoffed. "Are you joking?"

Nathaniel was aghast. "Do you see me laughing?"

Hope shook her head as an incredulous look spread across her sharp features. "Tell me the truth, Nate. Did you have Jed do this?"

And there it was. The comb was finally out. Nathaniel couldn't help but let out a chuckle with a mixture of hurt and disbelief. The nephilim would've taken those words coming from anyone's mouth no problem but coming from Hope's it made him ache. The tribrid saw Nathaniel like everyone else in that school saw him. The boy-king, the death-bringer, Satan's spawn. He wasn't Nathaniel to her in that moment because Hope believed him to be capable of sending off his friend to kill Landon.

Was he imagining it?

"What did you just say?" Nathaniel inquired.

Hope faltered just a bit, but the tribrid went through with what she had to ask the nephilim anyway. "Did you, or did you not, sick Jed on Landon?"

Nathaniel let his face turn emotionless. "You seemed to have already made your mind up on that."

"I'm asking you," Hope shook her head.

"You shouldn't even have to ask," Nathaniel calmly replied as the nephilim let his shoulder fall. "You believe me capable of sending Jed to kill the kid. If you want me to be the bad guy here, Hope, there's nothing much I can do than to be that. Maybe I did tell Jed to kill Landon. Now what?"

Hope shuddered, guilt starting to fill her. "You threatened him before he was attacked."

Nathaniel nodded, intending on fueling her belief of him being the perpetrator. "To make his life here hell. Not to end it. But hey, I might've changed my mind."

"Okay, I get it," Hope eyed him, her body slumped. "I'm sorry. I know you wouldn't- I just- he could've died and it would've been my fault for bringing him here. I'm sorry, Nate."

Though Nathaniel hurt, he nodded. "You, Alaric and I brought him here," the nephilim stated before biting the inside of his mouth. "Rafael demoted Jed as alpha. I think that's the reason Jed went after Landon. It's the most important thing to him, you know that- Landon can't stay here after this."

And Hope knew that. So, with one call to Alaric Saltzman later, Nathaniel and Hope had each their own chair in student council. The plan was simple. Vote Landon Kirby out of staying in the Salvatore Boarding School for his safety and the safety of others. It wasn't going to be an isolated incident, and everyone needed to understand that before Landon one day ended up dead on campus.

"Sorry we're late," Hope stated as both her and Nathaniel entered the ballroom.

Nathaniel sat between Hope and Josie at the head of the table as the others shared a confused look.

"Hold up-" Kaleb interfered. "Who voted for them?"

Nathaniel smiled tightly. "We ran unopposed."

Kaleb rolled his eyes and Emma Tig, who had been silently watching the exchange, used telekinesis to raise an old-fashioned golden scale in the air. "We're here to discuss if Landon should be allowed to stay at the school. My vote, on behalf of the lower school, is on the side of inclusion. We exist to help kids like him."

And with that, Emma placed her small stone with the Salvatore School 'S' printed on it on one side of the balance to represent her vote. Then she finalized it with stating a search party was out for Jed before leaving the room. There was a long moment of silence as everyone glanced at each other.

Kaleb spoke up first. "Alright, who wants to start?"

"Landon has to go," Hope stated after a second.

Josie and Kaleb looked pleasantly surprised by the decision but it was completely obvious by the scowl on Rafael's face that he felt betrayed. Nonetheless, Nathaniel gave Hope's leg a small encouraging squeeze and the tribrid smile softly in Nathaniel's direction. The sentiment was something like I'm here for you regardless. And they always were.

"Never thought I'd be saying this, but... Hope's right. Humans refuse to make a place for us in their world. We start letting them in? It's only a matter of time before they take this place from us too," Kaleb placed his stone on the opposite side of the scale, causing the two dishes to balance out. "Landon goes."

"Landon is my brother," Rafael stated, opening his argument. "He's the only reason I'm alive. He can't go back to human life knowing that magic and dragons exist. We took his whole crappy life from him. It's be awfully selfish of us to not give him one to replace it," he placed his stone alongside Emma's. "That's two-one."

Nathaniel had to step in. "Landon could easily die here. It'd be awfully selfish of you to keep him here. No one took his crappy life from him; he ran away from it."

"Look what one mad wolf did to him," Hope added, bringing in everyone's attention. "This place is dangerous for him."

Rafael perked up. "I'll protect him."

"Like you did today when Jed jumped him?" Nathaniel spat out the question.

"If he stays, it's on all of us. It is all of out responsibility to protect him. Can we honestly say we believe every one of us can handle that responsibility?" Hope questioned before setting her stone, balancing the scale once again.

"He won't last here," Nathaniel breathed out heavily, using his stone and putting it in with Hope's. "It's three-two now."

All eyes landed on Josie just then. That was it. The final decision. Josie Saltzman was Rafael's only hope of Landon staying, and Josie knew that. If the gemini witch decided on appeasing Rafael, it would ultimately land on Alaric making the decision on whether Landon stayed or not. And that was better than everyone deciding on Landon leaving that same night.

"Josie, please."

Nathaniel shook his head. "Stop."

It was a few seconds before Josie finally came to her decision. "Since Landon walked through those doors, my siblings, my father, and I have almost died. We don't really know what Landon is, so we can't really say if we know if he's dangerous or not," she paused before looking at everyone until her eyes landed on Rafael. "Raf, this isn't about who is friends with who or who you like. This school is family, and I'm not putting my family in danger again."

With that, Josie's stone went in with Nathaniel's in the 'Landon goes' dish, and Rafael furiously stood to his feet and violently threw his chair behind him. Nathaniel was quickly on his feet as his green eyes turned gold and white veins glowed on his skin.

"Stand down," Nathaniel hissed.

And without much else, Rafael kneeled.

The tension around the room was palpitating. And though Rafael submitted, the alpha's eyes held deep anger and Nathaniel only wondered what the werewolf would have done had he not been subdued. As Nathaniel let Rafael go once the werewolf had calmed himself enough, the alpha huffed out a few choice words to everyone present before slamming the ballroom doors.

Minutes later, Nathaniel sat on Hope's bed as he eyed the tribrid. Hope had announced she'd be walking Landon to the nearest bus-stop and Nathaniel had been unamused. There was something underlying in that statement, and Nathaniel didn't want Hope to leave with Landon. The nephilim just didn't know how to let her know that.

"Hope," Nathaniel let out.

In return, Hope stopped the spell she was casting on the bracelet the tribrid had told him was intended for Landon as she turned to Nathaniel. "Yeah?"

The words were stuck in Nathaniel's throat, and Hope could see the struggle in the nephilim's eyes. Nathaniel was battling with himself, weighing the pros and cons of the next sentence he would spit out. Nathaniel Forbes was feeling for Hope Mikaelson. And now that Nathaniel understood what all that meant, the nephilim was terrified what it would do.

Nathaniel's voice was low and uncertain. "Don't go."

Hope turned stunned. "What?"

Nathaniel was frustrated. "Don't go with him."

"Why?" Hope narrowed her brows in confusion.

"Please," Nathaniel breathed out, almost pained.

Hope sighed, a closed-mouth smile appearing on her lips as she looked at Nathaniel before she softly held his hand in hers. "Come with me?"

And Nathaniel understood in that moment that Hope wasn't letting go of Landon. And though that hurt, there was a part of the nephilim that told himself Hope wasn't about to let go of him either and that warmed Nathaniel. Maybe the nephilim didn't have Hope all to himself anymore. But maybe that's what Nathaniel needed to come to an understanding of what Hope meant to him.

Nathaniel smiled tightly. "Yeah."

Things weren't certain, and Nathaniel knew they had to talk about those feelings eventually. But at that moment, whilst holding Hope's hand as her finger lightly caressed his palm, Nathaniel felt like things were looking up.

And the nephilim be damned if he was going to let angels, demons or even Landon Kirby ruin that for him.

▆▆▆▆▆▆ ★ ▆▆▆▆▆▆

unedited.
super quick update bc ily guys <3.
okay, so i said there'd be feeling revelations
and that sorta stuff, while they didn't exactly
profess their undying love for each other,
nate finally understood what's going on
between them and that's going to change
the dynamic of their relationship.
they'll get to the kisses eventually,
i promise! it's just too soon and nate isn't
a fast guy when it comes to relationships.
(as you can tell because he doesn't pay
attention to girls that aren't hope!)